Hanging Up
GLAM SCHLOCK: Hanging Up goes for broke and comes up
short
Link: Hanging Up
By Mark Burger
JOURNAL ARTS REPORTER
Hanging Up was originally scheduled for release last
year to qualify for potential Oscar nominations, but
was pushed back to February because it wasn't ready.
Judging by the results, it still isn't ready.
The film is based on Delia Ephron's
semiautobiographical novel and adapted by Ephron and
her real-life sister, Nora Ephron. It is rife with the
catty, cutesy dialogue for which the Ephrons are
renowned -- particularly Nora, whose credits include
Heartburn (1986), Sleepless in Seattle (1993) and
You've Got Mail (1998).
Hanging Up adheres to that formula, but the results
are excruciating. The film is never as clever or
touching or funny as it thinks it is. In an effort to
work as comedy and drama, it goes for broke -- and
comes up short in every department.
From the advertisements, one would think that the film
is a comedy showcase for Meg Ryan, Lisa Kudrow and
Diane Keaton as three sisters. Not exactly. The three
actresses share only a handful of scenes together, and
none of significance until the end is near. This is
Ryan's show all the way. Kudrow drops in from time to
time, and Keaton -- who also directed the film, none
too gracefully -- barely appears at all until the last
half-hour. She almost seems to be in another movie.
They do play three sisters, that much is true. Keaton
plays Georgia, a fabulously glamorous magazine mogul;
Kudrow plays Maddy, a fabulously glamorous soap-opera
star; Ryan plays the middle sister, Eve, a fabulously
glamorous party planner. All three are well-to-do,
neurotic -- an Ephron trademark -- and, need it be
said again, glamorous.
It's just too bad that their father, one-time
Hollywood screenwriter Lou (Walter Matthau), is
slipping into the latter stages of dementia. Eve is
saddled with the responsibility of looking after him,
which she does while she reflects back on her
childhood. Cue the soft-focus flashbacks and the
treacly ballads on the soundtrack. Most of the
flashbacks center around Eve; you would hardly know
that she grew up with two sisters.
Eve must also juggle the demands of motherhood,
marriage (to Adam Arkin, a nonentity here) and career
while tending her ailing dad. It's a little hard to
feel much sympathy for her, despite her incessant
prattling and tittering, as she has a happy marriage
and a thriving career, lives in an incredible house in
Southern California and looks -- well, like Meg Ryan.
As is customary in films written by the Ephrons, there
are plenty of one-liners and re joinders throughout.
No matter how bad things get -- and, rest assured,
things do get bad -- no one is ever at a loss for a
snappy comeback.
''Your mother's dead,'' Lou tells Eve in one scene
(even though he's lying).
''She's not dead,'' Eve replies. ''She lives in Big
Bear.''
''Same thing,'' Lou snaps back.
Even in the face of senility and impending death,
isn't it comforting to know that Borscht Belt humor
will never die?
Matthau's non sequiturs raise a few smiles, but
otherwise, Hanging Up is a disaster. The film means
well, but in this case familiarity breeds contempt.
Stars: Meg Ryan, Diane Keaton, Lisa Kudrow, Walter
Matthau
Director: Diane Keaton
Rating: PG-13, adult situations, sexual innuendo and
language
Published: February 18, 2000
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